Local firms win bid to supply rice for Philippines

The companies won the bid last week after they offered prices of slightly under USD 428 per tons, revealed Judy Carol Dansal, head of the Philippines’ National Food Authority (NFA). Thai Capital Crops Co., Ltd will also export 18,000 tons of rice to the Philippines for USD 426.3 per ton. Vinafood 1 and Vinafood 2 offered prices of slightly under USD 428 per ton. In the last week’s rice import tender, the NFA accepted offers for only 47,000 tons from three suppliers, well below a planned purchase of 250,000 tons. Most of the offers from 13 international suppliers exceeded the state-run NFA’s approved budget of 428.18 per ton. “We will reopen the tender for the volume that was not taken,” said Dansal. The Philippines is on a rice buying spree this year, after President Rodrigo Duterte lifted a 20-year restriction on rice imports as inflation accelerated. The NFA has been approved to import 2.4 million tons, just below the record 2.45 million tons bought in 2010, when rising global food prices stoked shortage fears. Source: VNA